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WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

TRACT 40. 



THE IROQUOIS IN OHIO, 



Read Before the Society, December 28th, 1S68, 

By C. C. BALDWIN. 



In 1G08 an Indian from the Ottawas visited Quebec and 
urged Samuel de Champlain, the " Father of New France," 
to join an Indian war party against the Iroquois. In Maj^, 
1609, Champlain set out with his little band. On the west 
shore of the lake, still called Champlain, they met the enemy. 
The allies opened their ranks for their mail-clad, heaven- 
armed champion, who advanced to the front. At the report 
of his arquebuse an Indian fell, and after a very few dis- 
charges, the astonished Iroquois fled from the supernatural 
enemy, whose thunder and lightning struck them dead before 
they could reach him. 

Such was the first introduction ©f the Iroquois to civiliza- 
tion. This act ruled the history of Northern Ohio for a 
century and a half. The Iroquois forgot not the event ; for 
until New France became a British colony they kept up the 
old hatred, generally the old war ; and they held the entrance 
to our country. " To this Indian League," says Morgan, 
" France must chiefly ascribe the final overthrow of her 
magnificent schemes of colonization in the northern part of 
America." 

The Iroquois have been called the " Romans of the New 
World." Colden, in his History, relates many things in 
their manners and policy wherein he finds a resemblance to 
the classic ancients, and a superiority to our own ancestors, 
the Britons. 



The origin of the nation as such is concealed by time. 
When first known to the whites they occupied tlie country 
stretching from east to west through Central New York and 
along Lake Ontario. It was a confederacy composed of live 
tribes whose union was strength. Of kindred tongue were 
the Andastes of Pennsylvania, Eries of Ohio, Ilurons and 
Neutrals (so-called) of the Peninsula, north of Lake Erie? 
reaching to Lake Huron. Their language and character 
were so different from the surrounding nations that some 
have imagined them of altogether different origin. The 
Indian languages have more mobility than any other, and, 
according to Professor Whitney (Science of Language), text 
books prepared by missionaries have become almost unintel- 
ligible in three or four generations. Here lay the five 
nations, like an island, in a great sea of Algonquins ; 
their situation well depicted in the third volume of Bancroft's 
history (page 241), showing that theirs must have been an 
interesting history. Had they driven away the " Mound 
Builders " from Western New York, and their more thickly 
settled seats in Ohio ? Schoolcraft repeats the tradition that 
they came from the St. Lawrence to New York, that the 
confederation had taken place, and that its " chief repaired 
to the South to visit a ruler of great fame and authority who 
resided at a great town in a lodge of gold ;" that this great 
ruler built many forts, and almost penetrated to the banks of 
Lake Erie ; that the confederates resisted, and after a war of 
100 years the towns and forts were conquered and were heaps 
of ruins. The Delawares had a similar tradition, different 
in detail, associating the Iroquois with themselves in the 
destruction of a race, possibly the Mound Builders. 

It is curious that it is a part of the tradition related by 
Schoolcraft, that the Iroquois excelled in arts of savage 
warfare ; that after the driving out of the Nation of the 
"Lodge of Gold" from their town and forts, there was a 
large increase of wild beasts, as there must have been after 
the destruction of the Mound Builders ; who were so 
numerous that they must have lived by agriculture. Were 



IN BXCrtANtiii. 



— 3— 

the fortifications of Northern Ohio and New York those of 
this tradition ? 

Schoolcraft states that after this the Hnron-Iroquois family 
fell asunder, and still afterward the Iroquois confederacy was 
formed. Mr. Morgan, in his careful and able book, "League 
of the Iroquois," concludes that the course of the Huron- 
Iroquois was from the St. Lawrence to New York ; that they 
were separated into families, and that the league of the 
Iroquois was afterward formed, he supposes, about the year 
1500, though he says tradition dates it earlier. Governor 
Dongan told the Lords of Trade that, for aught he knew, 
they had lived in New York hundreds of years. At Lan- 
caster, at the treaty of 1744, Canassatego said to " Brother 
the Governor of Maryland :" " When you mentioned the 
affair of the land yesterday, you went back to old times, 
and told us you had been in possession of the province of 
Maryland above 100 years: but what is one 100 years in 
comparison of the length of time since our claim began — 
since we came out of the ground? For we must tell you 
that long before 100 years our ancestors came out of the 
very ground, and our children have remained here ever 
since." 

The Iroquois made their name feared far and wide. They 
collected tribute of many of the Indians of New England, 
and the cry of " A Mohawk, a Mohawk," drove all the 
Indians to places of concealment or refuge. Of their con- 
quest of cognate tribes, Francis Parkman gives a wonderfully 
interesting account in his " Jesuits in North America." 
They conquered the Hurons and broke up the French 
missions, though the French assisted in their defense. They 
even defeated the Hurons in sight of Quebec. The first 
mention in history of the country south of Lake Erie occurs 
in the relation of this war. In 1615,Etienne Brule, the inter- 
preter of Champlain, is supposed to have visited the Eries 
for reinforcements to assist the Hurons. The Iroquois 
destroyed the Neutrals, who occupied the territory north of 
Lake Erie, extending to Niagara river, around Lake Erie, 



— 4— 

aud possibly some little distance along its southern shore. 
In 1654 they had totall}^ conquered the Hurons, who, driven 
from place to place, separated, part of them settlino; in 
Western Ohio, and remaining until a late day, from Sandusky 
westward, under the name of Wyandots. The Iroquois then 
made peace with the French and few remaining Hurons, and 
announced at Quebec that they were going to war with the 
Eries. On the 10th day of August, 1654, Father Simon Le 
Moine gave them hatchets for this service, and also by his 
nineteenth present, " wiped away the tears of all their young 
warriors for the death of their great chief Annencraos, a 
short time prisoner with the Cat Xation " (Eries.) 

This tribe is located by all south of Lake Erie. Bancroft 
places the Andastes on the lake between them and the 
Iroquois. There can be no doubt that this is wrong; though 
it may be considered at least doubtful whether the Eries 
extended beyond the lower end of Lake Erie, or even to its 
eastern extremity. The map of Charlevoix places them 
along the Western Reserve, and extending somewhat east of 
it. Mitchell's map, of 1755, places them " south of Lake 
Erie." The earlier maps of De Lisle, the great French 
geographer, and Coxe, give them the [same location. The 
Eries were so entirely destroyed, after a war of great ferocity, 
that no remnant of them has ever been satisfactorily identi- 
fied. The whole story, the occupation of the Eries, the 
coming of the Wyandots, the final triumph of the Iroquois, 
and the flight of the Eries, is supposed by Mr. Schoolcraft 
to be represented in an "extensive" and " well sculptured " 
inscription on Kelley Island. We can probably rely with 
much more certainty upon the French accounts and even 
Iroquois traditions. 

The Iroquois then turned their arms against the Andastes 
occupying the upper waters of the Alleghany and Susque- 
hanna, they being conquered, all the bordering cognate 
tribes were subject to the Iroquois, aud they reached the 



NoTK. — A too brief article on the Eries, by Mr. Shea, in the new American Encyclopedia (1874) 
says the greater^art of the Eries.weredeatroyed, and the balance incorporated with the Senecas. 



Algonquins on every side. The Hurons, Eries, and Andastes 
had been greatly feared. What must be the strength 
and fierceness of their conquerors ? The terror of the 
Iroquois seems to have extended far and wide, and saved 
them many battles. Added to this vras generally their 
superiority in fire arms. The Dutch established a trading 
post at Fort Orange (Albany,) in 1615 and trade commenced 
with the Iroquois for furs in which they were soon supplied 
with arms. Generally hostile to the French, they were con- 
stant to the Dutch and English ; having no quarrel for 150 
years. The extent of subsequent Iroquois conquests has 
been much debated. One side represented by Golden and 
Governor Clinton ; the other by President Harrison in his 
discourse before the Historical Society of Ohio. The first 
relying altogether on the Iroquois accounts, the other relying 
too much on the traditions of the Western Indians. It seems 
to be well settled, however, that the Iroquois continued to 
occupy a considerable portion of Ohio at will. The memorials 
and reports of English officers show that the Iroquois, whose 
own country had not much game, considered Ohio their best 
hunting ground. A considerable portion of Xorthern Ohio 
east of Sandusky seems to have continued to be, even after 
the Revolution, a partly neutral ground, permanently occu- 
pied by no tribe, no doubt the bloody field of many small 
contests. 

But the Iroquois extended their arms further. Across the 
peninsula north of Lake Erie they attacked the -Chitagticks'' 
or Illinois with varying fortune, but with such success, that 
their pre-eminence was acknowledged, though they may have 
occupied no new territory. Then they warred with the 
"Twightwees"" or Miamis. Colden's -Five Nations" is full 
of this war, which was to some degree carried on across our 
territory. He says they had entirely subdued the Uliuois in 
1685, and resolved to call the Miamis to account for the 
disturbance they had given the Iroquois in beaver hunting^ 
beaver being the most valued fur. In 16S4, Garangula, a 
celebrated orator, whom Golden thinks resembled Gicero — 



— 6— 

even in his features — stated to the French that tlie Iro([uoi8 
had knocked the Illinois and Miamis on the head because 
"they had cut down the trees of peace which were the limits 
of our country; they have hunted beavers on our lands; they 
have acted contrary to the customs of all Indians ; they have 
left none of the heaver alive ; they have killed both male and 
female ; they have brought the Satanas (Shawnees) into their 
country to take part with themselves ; they have designed 
us ill. We have done less than either the English or the 
French. They have usurped the lands of so many Indian 
nations, and chased them from their own country. This belt 
preserves my words." The principal beaver hunting-ground 
seems to have been north and northwestward of Lake Erie, 
being expressly pointed out as such in a provincial report to 
England. There were beavers in Ohio, perhaps less plenty, 
and the title of the Iroquois there may have been less 
disturbed. 

According to the French memoir of 1687, they had attacked 
the Miamis and Illinois at Fort St. Louis, built by La Salle 
on the Illinois in the neighborhood of the Mississippi 
(meeting La Salle himself), massacred and burnt a large 
number, carried ofi'many prisoners, and threatened an entire 
extermination. They had ranged the whole of Ohio, and 
country south and west of it. 

On the south and southeast of their country they had 
defeated and driven away the Shawnees, who had gone west- 
ward ; received by the Miamis and for many long years 
holding their lands in Southwest Ohio, and southwest of 
that, as the property of the Iroquois. 

They had long before made "women" of the Delawares 
who, gradually moving westward, began to occupy Southeast- 
ern Ohio, all the while acknowledging the supremacy of the 
Five Nations. About 1700 "Messieurs les Iroquois" as La 
Hontan calls them, were at the acme of their power. Mor- 
gan makes their nominal government to extend over Kew 
York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the 
north and west of Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, North Ten- 



nessee, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan ; a portion of New 
England, and great part of Upper Canada. The government 
was, of course, slight, for an Indian, as La Hontan says, 
"believes in no ruler but himself." 

Governor Dongan, about 1684, writing to the home gov- 
ernment, says : "The Five Nations are the most warlike 
people in America, and are a bulwark between us and the 
French and all other Indians. They go as far as the South 
Sea, the Northwest Passage, and Florida to war." In 1685, 
the memoir to the French government ot M.De Nonville, says 
the French need never expect to subjugate the Senecas, 
"except we be in a position to surprise them." The orator, 
Kaqueendara, delivered to the French the thoughts of his 
nation in these words : "You think yourselves the ancient 
inhabitants of this country, and longest in possession ; yea? 
all the Christian inhabitants of New York and Cayenquiragoe 
(Governor of New York), think the same of themselves. Wc 
warriors are the first, the ancient people, the greatest of 
you all." 

The Iroquois held the key to Western trade, though they J 
could not have it all themselves. The French could not 
have safe conduct, being closely watched and attacked, for 
fear of their supplying the Western tribes with arms and 
ammunition. The English lost the trade because the Iroquois 
were between. Peace was plainly for the interest of the 
English ; and there was much argument showing that the 
trade passing either north or south of Lake Erie must meet 
at the Niagara, so that the English, with advanced trading 
posts protected by the Iroquois and with cheaper goods, 
could get it. They persuaded the Iroquois to receive the 
Illinois and Miamis as friends. Then came the struggle 
between the English and French, for territorial sovereignty. 
The French claimed the territory watered by the Ohio and 
between and around the lakes, because first discovered and 
explored by them. The English claimed sovereignty over 
the Five Nations, and therefore over all land conquered by 
them. Thence the English interest in extolling the extent 
and strength of the Iroquois government. The French 



replied that their discovery was before the Iroquois conquest. 

Governor Burnet, in 1721, thinks the French have no title 
by occupancy to the West, as the Iroquois were before them, 
and had used the lands as a hunting ground, having subdued 
the old title and conveyed their title to Great Britain at 
Albany, 1701, in these words : "We do give up and render 
all that land where the beaver hunting is," etc., "to Coraghkoe, 
our great King, and pray he may be our protector and 
defender ;" in which very treaty he says complaint was made 
of the French settlement at Detroit. The Governor should 
have added to the grant the following words : " To be pro- 
tected and defended by his said majesty, his heirs, and 
successors forever to and for our use, our heirs, and successors," 
meaning the grantors. 

The deed of 1684, under which Ohio was claimed, was 
similar, and even more explicit. The English, however, often 
claimed absolute title of the lands under these instruments. 

Governor Tryon, in his report of 1774, puts the original 
title of Great Britain on the ground of the submission of the 
Five Nations to the Crown. There seems no doubt that they 
never did submit, but always regarded the English simply as 
allies, as they were. Practically the title of the Indians 
seems to have been recognized by subsequent purchase. 
From about 1696 to 1755, the French and Iroquois were at 
peace. The latter occasionally troubled distant tribes, but 
their fierce wars were ended. Some of them, chiefly Senecas, 
emigrated to Northeastern Ohio, settling therein on friendly 
terms with their dependents, the Delawares and Shawnees, 
and inter-marrying with them. Government among Indians 
was loose, and war was sometimes as accidental and without 
plan as the chase. The Ohio Indians were sometimes hostile, 
when the SixNationsproper were quiet. In 1768, a purchase 
was made of lands on the Susquehanna. The Ohio Iroquois 
not being included in the distribution, were dissatisfied, and 
some of them returned to New York, thinking their share 
in future sales might be more secure. The history of those 
who remained can be more easily followed, in the history of 
the tribes with whom they were associated. One of their 



— 9— 

number, Logan, a Mingo, or Cayuga chief, was a man of 
mark and power in Ohio history, whose wrongs, vengeance, 
and eloquence are known throughout the world. His band 
remained in Ohio until a late day, receiving ti'oni the United 
States, in 1817 and 1818, grants of 40,000 acres of land 
called the " Seneca Reservation,'' where Seneca county now 
is, and where tliey remained until moved West in 1831. 

Although the Delawares prior to 17G5 agreed to stand by 
such conveyances as the Iroquois might make, and the latter 
expected the Shawnees to do the same, the Ohio tribes were 
dissatistied. The whites sometimes quarreled with them, 
and sometimes purchased more than once. 

According to a valuable unpublished map,* made by 
Colonel Charles Whittlesey, the occupation of Ohio from, 
the French war to the Revolution was as follows: The gen- 
eral western limits of the Iroquois proper was a line running 
through the counties of Belmont, Harrison, Tuscarawas, 
Stark, Summit, and Cuyahoga. The Delawares occupied the 
valley of the Muskingum, their northern line running through 
Richland, Ashland, and Wayne; the Shawnees the valley of 
the Scioto, the northen line being a little lower than the 
Delawares; the last two tribes occupying as tenants of 
the Iroquois. It will thus be seen that the Iroquois had not 
only admitted sovereignty, but actual legal occupancy of the - 
greater part of Ohio. 

Sir William Johnson, the most influential and sensible 
agent with the Iroquois the English ever had, saw that it 
was worse than useless to rest any claim to Iroquois territory 
on tlie old treaties, and in 1704 represented to the home 
Grovernment " As tlie (then) Six Nations, Western Indians 
etc., were never conquered by the French or English, nor 
were subject to laws, they considered themselves free people; 
that the English must be cautious not to circumscribe limits 
too far; that in tlie treaty then pending (in reference to 
lands east of the Ohio) the bounds should l)e clearly under- 
stood, and the Indians paid tor all lands without that bound- 
ary when they were wanted." He stated that the Six Nations 
and confedei'ates extended far enough so tliat they not 
only claimed many parts south of the Ohio, but many of their 

*NoTB — Since published in 1S72 in Walling & Gray's Atlas of Ohio. 



—10— 

people were actiuilly settled south of it, their claim however 
not extending i^outh of that part helow the falls. 

At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768, the Iro(|Uois deeded 
to the Allei>'hany river. They ceded to the United States 
all the land west of the east line of Ohio in 1784. In 1786 
they united with many western tribes in an address declar- 
ing all treaties void unless all joined, but, nevertheless, made 
a. treaty where all did not join in 1789. The pioneers of the 
Connecticut Land Compau}', on their way to the Reserve, 
also met the Iroquois in treaty at Buft'alo, in 1796. There 
were other treaties and deeds before these which deserve 
mention, but these transactions demand a separate paper. 
I have only referred to them to show the general connection 
of the Iroquois with Ohio. 

Both the British and Americans courted these Indians at 
the opening of the Revolution, hut the influences of the 
Johnsons, and avaricious traders and land speculators was 
too strong. They adhered to the British and committed the 
usual atrocities of Indian warfare, which excited popular 
indig-nation on both sides of the sea. In an Eno-lish cari- 
cature of the time, George III. is represented seated with his 
Indian ally in a cannibal feast, wherein both gnaw the same 
bone, of which the indian has the l)cst share, A\"liile tlie 
King holds a skull tilled with smoking punch. The rro((uois 
battles, however, were not fought on Oliio soil. 
\ Their confederacy, perha|)S, exerted an intluence toward 
the union of the colonies. At the Lancaster treaty of 1744 
Cannestoga said: '' Oui" wise forefathers established union 
and amity with our neighboring nations. We are a power- 
ful confederacy, and by your observing the same methods 
our wise forefathers liave taken, you will acquire fresh 
strengh and power; therefore whatever befalls you never 
fall out one with another." 

At the Albany Convention of 1754, before the French 
war, such a union of colonies was recommended by them. 
And perhaps tlie general influence and exauiple of llie con- 
federacy, towai'd the union of States, has really been as im- 
portant in the history and condition ot our State, as tlie 
previous direct conquest and occupation of its territory. 




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